Homemade pork aspic with vegetables

Check that the trotters are thoroughly cleaned and free of bristles, and that the hock pieces have no loose bone fragments. Arrange the trotters and hock fairly snugly in a pot of about 5–6 l capacity, leaving room to skim off the foam later. Leave the carrot and parsley root in large pieces, halve the celeriac and quarter the onion.

Pour in 2.5 l cold water; it should just cover the snugly arranged meat. Slowly bring to a boil, using a spoon to skim foam from the surface during the first few minutes. Add the bay leaves, allspice, peppercorns and 5 g salt, then reduce the heat so the liquid barely simmers.

Cook for about 3 hours with the lid slightly ajar, without vigorous bubbling or frequent stirring. If the water level drops so far that pieces clearly protrude above it, add a little hot water from the reserve, no more than 500 ml in total. Toward the end of this stage, the meat should be starting to soften, but it will cook further with the vegetables.

Add the carrot, parsley root, celeriac and onion. Cook over low heat for another 45–60 minutes, until the carrot is tender and the meat and skin are very soft and easy to separate from the bones. Remove the carrot earlier if it starts to fall apart; if the meat still does not come away easily from the bones, continue the gentle simmer.

Lift the meat and carrot onto a wide plate, then pour the broth through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean pot, without pressing the vegetables. Skim as much fat as possible from the surface with a spoon; the remaining vegetables and whole spices will not be needed in the aspic. Measure the broth: if there is more than about 1.3 l, simmer uncovered for roughly 20–30 minutes to evaporate the excess. If you already have slightly less, do not dilute it.

Pour a spoonful of broth onto a chilled saucer and refrigerate for 15–20 minutes; the thin layer should noticeably set when you tilt the saucer. Meanwhile, once the meat is cool enough to touch, carefully remove every bone, any hard cartilage and thick pieces of fat, then finely chop all the picked meat and soft skin. If the sample remains completely liquid, reduce the broth for another 10–15 minutes and chill another small sample; refrigerate the picked meat and carrot during this additional step. Until seasoning, keep the finished broth hot, covered, over the lowest heat.

Add the crushed garlic and remaining 5 g salt to the hot broth, then simmer gently for 2–3 minutes. Cut the carrot into thin rounds. Set out eight wide, shallow bowls of about 350 ml capacity each.

Divide all the meat, soft skin and carrot among the bowls, then pour in enough broth to cover the contents. Leave some headroom; the aspic layer should be no deeper than about 4 cm. Let the portions cool for about 20–30 minutes, then refrigerate within 2 hours of finishing cooking, arranging the bowls side by side without stacking them.

Once cooled, cover the bowls and leave in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight, until the aspic is firm and gently springy. Serve directly from the bowls, dividing the apple cider vinegar among the eight portions to drizzle on while eating. Keep refrigerated and eat within 48 hours of preparation.